Post Apocalypse Survival Guide
by KitKatt0430
Summary: Earth-1 is in a shambles, but its close enough to the Earth Hartley knows that he's got a sturdy plan for survival. Cisco's life is in tatters and most of his loved ones are dead, but maybe Hartley's survival plan can give him a reason to find hope again.


Summary: Earth-1 is in a shambles, but its close enough to the Earth Hartley knows that he's got a sturdy plan for survival. Cisco's life is in tatters and most of his loved ones are dead, but maybe Hartley's survival plan can give him a reason to find hope again.

Notes: For Hartmon AU week - Apocalypse

Content Warnings: Story starts off with a lot of main characters killed off, discussions of past character deaths, brief mention of a club shooting, mentions of homophobia, mentions of cancer, past child death, and mentions of a past suicide attempt

_**Post Apocalypse Survival Guide**_

The last thing Hartley remembers before the multi-verse dies was seeing a glimpse of Cisco Ramon, dressed like a super hero, blasting one of the Anti-Monitor's demons out of the sky. It caught Hartley's attention because… the Cisco Ramon he'd known had died years earlier at the hands of Eobard Thawne.

So when Hartley woke up in the rubble of what was once Earth-1's STAR Labs, he made his way over to where he'd last seen Ramon standing, and carefully dug the other man out from under the semi-collapsed wall that had half-covered and half-shielded him. Then Hartley headed for his apartment, only to realize halfway there that the building wasn't there.

The entire city block wasn't there. And even if it were, this isn't actually Hartley's Earth. He has to stop for a long moment to process that knowledge.

Taking a shaky breath, Hartley carefully returns to the nearest safe spot he could find, stowed the unconscious Cisco Ramon there, and then started planning for basic survival needs. Food and shelter first. There was a grocery store nearby. And a few hardware stores, which always sold seeds. Considering the shape the city was in, it'd be a good idea to pack up on equipment good for gardens that could sustain a couple of people and then get the hell out of Central before the Mad Max mentality set in.

Hopefully this version of Cisco wouldn't mind Hartley making plans on his behalf.

* * *

"You're not a Paragon, but Vibe still has his use."

What use? Cisco couldn't even begin to fathom the answer to that because he'd been useless. His efforts amounted to nothing as the Paragons… as his friends were killed by the Harbinger and her lackeys. And somewhere in there was still Lyla, corrupted by the Anti-Monitor's power. It wasn't her fault.

Not really. And she was dead now too, anyway. (John had... and he was dead as well. Their kids with Felicity, where ever she was hiding.)

But that didn't make it any better that Cisco was alive in a world where Barry and Kara and Kamilla and Iris were all dead. Caitlin and Frost and Ralph were missing, probably dead too.

So Cisco had fought until the bitter end, fought for nothing, knowing full well he was going to die too. And when the wall came down on him, he didn't have the energy to breach away.

He'd thought that was it. The end. Goodbye Cisco Ramon. Goodbye multi-verse. Goodbye all living things.

Except… Cisco woke up.

Everything hurt. Which was, unfortunately, not a metaphor. He ached all over. Nothing was broken, though, which he tested out carefully as he sat up. He was in a car, in the backseat, which was parked in a semi-empty parking lot. The windows were cracked and the doors locked, but they unlocked easily enough when he checked.

Cisco opened up the car door and let himself out. "Hello?" he called. "Anyone there?"

"Yeah. Just me. Hopefully just me, anyway." And Hartley Rathaway of all people popped up from behind a nearby van. Not Cisco's Earth's Hartley, though. Because he…

Cisco shook off the thought and concentrated on the present. "Where are we?"

"Parking lot near downtown Central," Hartley said, still clearly inspecting the van. It seemed to pass muster because Hartley pulled out his phone and did something and there was a distinctive sound of doors unlocking. "Too easy," he muttered, before turning to Cisco again. "Welcome to the last universe alive. Made up of leftover bits and bobs from all the other universes that died. I hope you don't mind me dragging you out of the wreckage of STAR Labs, but I really didn't want to be in this alone. Because odds are the city is going to turn into a place where only hard core anarchists would be happy."

Part of Cisco wished Hartley'd left him in the wreckage to die. But he didn't voice that wish. "I take it you've got a plan, then?"

"Steal a van. Or two if your up for driving. Fill it up with necessities. Food, water, seeds, gardening tools, maybe some generators if we can find them… my parents had a summer house out on the lake that was basically in the middle of nowhere and I'm hoping that some version of that house still exists that we can take over. A lot of room for survivors if we can find anyone safe enough to bring back with us." Hartley shrugged, adding, "it's only a few hours drive from the city limits and we can stock up on gasoline before heading out too."

The chaos outside felt like it was pressing in on Cisco's newly returned psychic senses. Getting out of the city sounded like a solid plan. "I'm up for it," he agreed. "And I should be good to drive, so lets find another van you can hack."

Tentatively, Hartley smiled. Cisco wondered how he could do that when their worlds were destroyed and they were left with the ashes.

* * *

Hartley got them to a Target first, where they raided the grocery store section first, loading up both vans equally with food, then went for clothes, blankets, and other necessities. The part of town they were in seemed nearly empty, but Hartley'd found a hand crank radio that managed to catch some amateur broadcasts that were still running. There were a lot of ongoing riots in other places, a lot of stores set on fire, a lot of wasted goods.

But this area of town had been seemingly wiped clean of life and it was eerie for Hartley, though apparently this version of Cisco had some sort of psychic powers and could sense something bad headed their way. Likely the riots.

Once the vans were loaded up, they headed to a Home Depot across the street. Loaded up on the gardening essentials, basic tool supplies, and a bunch of empty gas canisters. Luck was in their favor when they moved on to the gas station. There was still power to the pumps, so they topped up the vans, filled up every canister, and raided the station for travel drinks and snacks.

Hartley had grabbed a map and charted out the route to his parents summer home for Cisco, though they intended for him to follow along behind Hartley's van.

And then they drove. It didn't quite take two hours, but then they didn't have to follow the speed limits. No cops to enforce it. And the roads were mostly empty.

The house was right where Hartley'd thought it would be. It wasn't the house he remembered, but it was there and it was both large and empty. Cisco breached them inside which meant they didn't have to break a window or pick the lock to get in, which was a relief. There was no electricity, though, and Hartley wished they'd had room in the vans for some generators. They were going to have to risk going back to the city the next day to scavenge more.

Which they did. A morning trip to get more canned goods from a grocery store near the edge of the city. An afternoon trip to raid the Home Depot again, picking up some electrical generators that ran on gasoline. So, naturally, they also hit up the gas station again, after a quick pit stop at a Car Toys to grab a bunch of car batteries. That was pretty much how they spent the next few days, occasionally changing what part of the city they hit so as to avoid riots slowly crawling across the remains of Central City. They did run into other survivors, but no one who'd trust them… and no one they'd trust either.

But a week later? They ran into a man and a woman traveling together, both of whom Cisco recognized. Hartley hadn't the foggiest idea who they were, but apparently Ralph and… Frost? They were friends of Cisco's, from the same Earth he was from.

So Hartley stood back awkwardly and watched their reunion. He let himself wonder, for the first time, if maybe someone he knew from his Earth had survived.

He doubted it. After Cisco died, Hartley'd buried himself in his work and his alter ego, the Pied Piper. He'd been tentatively friends with Wally West, the Flash, but Hartley had mostly kept to himself. If Wally was out there… it'd be nice if he'd survived. But Hartley didn't dare let himself hope.

* * *

Cisco starts crying when they find Ralph and Frost. And he can't stop crying for pretty much the rest of the day. Frost giving way to Caitlin just makes it worse because she starts crying too, for everyone and everything they've lost.

He manages to reign things in enough to introduce them to this version of Hartley and Caitlin is awkwardly polite. Hartley doesn't seem to mind, which is a relief, and they head back to the house, now a foursome instead of a twosome. Ralph's got a car that he's attached to which doesn't hold as much as a van, but that's fine. They load him up with gas canisters and supplies and the map Cisco no longer needs.

Cisco could probably do the whole drive in his sleep.

He has to explain, later, that his powers are back. Caitlin ends up sleeping in his bed that night. Platonic cuddles that they both desperately needed.

After that, though, they finally start picking up other survivors. A mom with a thirteen-year-old daughter, a sixteen-year-old genderqueer kid, a pediatrician and a vet…

And, somehow, winter becomes spring. Their garden starts growing. A nearby farm turns out to still be operational and they barter for chickens and a couple of goats.

They go back to Central and pick over the remains of a Lowes to get chain saws and carpentry tools. Cement bags and lumber, some doors…

They build a new shed and a greenhouse and pick up a plumber. They make accessibility ramps improve their cache of medical supplies.

Spring turns to summer and they get a sheep. They raid a craft store for yarn and fabric and sewing supplies. Someone gets the bright idea to steal a movie projector and they watch dvds in the evenings when it gets dark enough outside.

Summer becomes fall and Cisco falls apart when he realizes he missed Kamilla's birthday. He'd marked the days for Barry, Iris, Joe, Cecile, and Jenna. For his parents. But he'd missed Kamilla's somehow and he just…

* * *

Hartley slipped into Cisco and Caitlin/Frost's room.

He'd thought, at first, the two (or three) of them were… well… together. But he'd learned rather quickly that they were too much like siblings to be lovers and tried to tell himself that wasn't a relief.

This wasn't his Cisco, after all. He didn't have the right to feel this way about the other man. He hadn't really had the right to feel like this about his Earth's Cisco either, to be honest.

But months later and burying the feelings only seemed to make them grow with the same strength and vigor of their garden.

Still, this Cisco might not be his Cisco, but perhaps Hartley can still help.

Cisco doesn't even bother to look up when Hartley closes the door. But he does jerk up in bed and stare at Hartley in shock at the sound of a cork popping out of a wine bottle.

Hartley pours two glasses. He hands over one and keeps the other for himself. "I only grabbed the one bottle and no guarantee on its quality because I never did bother to learn the intricacies of good wine." Hartley tentatively swirls his glass and inhales the bouquet and makes a face. "Give me cheap, too sweet wine any day. Anyway..." He takes a sip, tries not to choke. "Well this was a terrible idea."

And, as he'd hoped, Cisco lets out a startled laugh. It's barely even recognizable as a laugh, but its a start. "What are you doing, Hartley?"

"You haven't come out of your room in three days," Hartley told him. "We've been doing fine splitting the work you normally do between the rest of us, but we're all worried. Mary had to tell Ella that you're sick."

"I'm sorry," Cisco looked down, hands on the wine glass shaking a little.

"Well, you are sick. We all kind of are, its just hitting you harder right now." When Cisco frowned up at Hartley, he elaborated. "After living through what was basically the apocalypse, we're all mentally and emotionally unwell, Cisco."

"Fair point." Cisco took a drink of his wine and then wrinkled his nose in distaste. "This is probably, what, 80 dollar wine? And its awful."

"I yanked this from the farthest back in the cellar, so its probably worth a lot more than that," Hartley said with a laugh. "Maybe I'll use whats left in the bottle to make pasta tonight." He took another drink from his glass and shuddered. "Wow, this gets worse with the second taste. Gonna finish the glass though."

Cisco rolled his eyes, but he also took a second sip. "Okay, yeah, does not get better at all. And how is this making my mouth dry? It's liquid."

"It's alcohol," Hartley responded, deadpan. Cisco's laugh this time was a little more natural sounding.

"I'm sorry about your girlfriend."

There's silence.

"I'd only just recently told her I loved her. And… the woman I'd been dating before her had died pretty recently too. Murdered by..." he shook his head. Skipped that part, whatever it was. "We went to her funeral together. I thought… we had our whole lives ahead of us. If we could just make it through whatever the red skies crisis was. We knew was coming. Gideon… an AI from the future had warned us about it, but she didn't have details. Just a newspaper clipping saying the Flash was going to disappear. My best friend. Barry Allen. And the story was supposed to be written by his wife, but she's gone now too. My whole Earth is gone; so much for that future Barry's death was supposed to ensure.

"I wanted so badly to save him…" Cisco's voice cracked. "I'd given up my powers because I didn't feel like I could handle them. Couldn't balance being a super hero and a super genius at the same time, it was making my anxiety do awful things. So I gave up the powers and scaled back my responsibilities. And the Monitor forced those powers back on me. Said Vibe was needed, but needed for what? We fucking lost. My powers didn't make a damn bit of difference! And now almost everyone I love is dead. And I..."

"Started moving on. Just a little," Hartley filled in when Cisco trailed off. "Enough that you didn't notice til afterwards that there'd been yet another birthday for the dead to remember. I honestly don't know how you do it. Keep track of the dead like that. If I tried to mark the birthdays of everyone I've loved and lost, I'd probably go nuts."

"What's your story?" Cisco asked quietly. "What led to the Pied Piper fighting against the Anti-Monitor's forces?"

"Ah, well…" Hartley passed his wine glass between his hands. "Once upon a time," he smiled faintly as Cisco snorted in amusement, "there was a very gay boy in Catholic school who got outed. His parents put him in public school and threatened him with conversion therapy, but the public school had a GSA and this kid, whom we shall call Hartley, met another kid. Cisco Ramon. And they became best friends. Inseparable. When… when my parents disowned me at seventeen, Cisco and Dante helped me pack my stuff and set up in Mr. and Mrs. Ramon's basement. They helped me get into college and were family to me when my own utterly failed me. There was nothing I wouldn't do for that family. And nothing I wouldn't have done for Cisco Ramon."

"Hartley..."

"He's not you. Trust me, I know. You and the Hartley Rathaway of your Earth didn't really get along from what I can tell. Caitlin's said a few things and you get really startled sometimes when I do something nice." Hartley shrugged. "That's the multi-verse for you, I guess."

"Were you and he…?"

"Lovers? No." Hartley shook his head. "We fooled around in college some. But we ended up dating other people. After college, we both went to work for Lantern Labs, founded by a retired Green Lantern. We ended up helping Wally West when he gained Speedster powers and became the Flash. But Eobard Thawne traveled from the future to our present, at first because he wanted to become the Flash himself. But when he couldn't have that, he fashioned himself into the Reverse Flash and tried to kill Wally.

"Things went badly with my boyfriend around that time and I broke up with him only to realize I… kind of was in love with Cisco. Who was dating Lisa Snart. Things were pretty serious too. I think Cisco was planning on bringing up the topic of marriage to see what her thoughts on the subject were. My feelings? Probably wouldn't have been all that welcome and I had no intention of ever saying anything. And in the midst of what felt like, to me anyway, all this drama, Thawne attacked Wally and Cisco saved Wally's life. But Thawne saw Cisco's face and tracked him down and..." Hartley took a deep drink of wine, barely tasting it. His nerves steadied.

"The funeral was very tasteful. And I proceeded to obsessively create anti-speedster tech in order to take down the Reverse Flash myself."

"I'm so sorry," Cisco said, rubbing his chest as though he somehow knew that was where Thawne had reached into the other Cisco's chest and… well, maybe he did know. Hartley still wasn't a hundred percent clear how the visions aspect of Cisco's powers worked. "What happened to Thawne?"

"I killed him," Hartley replied flatly. "I figured out his natural frequency and killed him very painfully. And then I tried to kill myself, but Wally wouldn't let me."

Cisco made a distressed noise, set aside his wine glass, and reached out to put a hand on Hartley's arm.

This Cisco was so much like Hartley's… he had to close his eyes and just breathe again. "It was years ago. And getting revenge fucked me up so badly I couldn't recognize myself anymore. I was so afraid I'd become this monster that he would have hated. Wally pushed me to make the Pied Piper someone to be proud of. His backup at first, but eventually a hero in my own right. But I'll never really know for sure if Cisco would have forgiven me for killing someone in his name. And even if you're very nice and try to forgive me in his place, well..."

"I'm not him," Cisco filled in quietly.

"Exactly." Hartley sighed quietly. "So, you and your Earth's Hartley. If not friends, then…?"

"Rivals," Cisco answered and took a drink of his own wine again, firmly ignoring the taste. "He was already working at STAR Labs when I started and he… didn't approve of my clothes or my attitude or… probably didn't approve of my hair either."

"No. No way. Your hair is gorgeous, there's no way he disapproved of that," Hartley denied hotly.

"Well, he disapproved of all of me, so the hair is implied," Cisco retorted. "But I appreciate the compliment, because my hair is gorgeous. Even now, my conditioner routine is on point. But, yeah, we didn't get along and then he just… disappeared. Supposedly quit, but something wasn't right about that. But I didn't like him, so I ignored my gut feeling and went on with life. Until the accelerator exploded and flipped our lives upside down. That's how I got my powers, originally anyway. Hartley came back into our lives at that point, because… Dr. Wells fired him to cover up for the fact that the accelerator had been designed to fail and Hartley had figured out the truth.

"That Hartley went on a revenge kick of his own, but Barry's time traveling shenanigans ended up attracting a Time Wraith and Hartley saved us from it, which sort of… helped him mellow out enough to work with us in figuring out what the hell was up with Dr. Wells. It turned out that Dr. Wells had been murdered fifteen years earlier and replaced by Eobard Thawne using future tech to take the appearance of his murder victim and, not unlike in your universe, he had a massive grudge against the Flash. By the time he helped us defeat the Reverse Flash, Hartley'd become friends with us. Sort of. But he didn't want to stick around STAR Labs anymore.

"We kept in touch, though. Right up until..." Cisco's voice hitched. "Hartley and his boyfriend… fiance. Hartley and his fiance were at a night club that got attacked by some homophobic white terrorist. Not, of course, that the news reporters would call him that when they could be ableist dicks and try to say he did it because he was mentally ill while at the same time trying to make the spree killer look more sympathetic than his victims.

"I didn't go to Hartley's funeral. It was only a few months after my brother had died in a hit and run and Barry's father had been murdered not long before that and I just… couldn't face a third funeral in one year."

Hartley caught Cisco's free hand in his own and gave it a little squeeze. Then they both finished off their really awful glasses of wine in silence.

"Thank you," Cisco said when Hartley gathered their glasses and the corked bottle of wine. "That was… I needed that. To talk about..." the past, though neither one of them filled in the words.

Both of them had led lives that were pretty out there even before becoming survivors of the apocalypse.

"Maybe we could do it again sometime?" Cisco added. "I'll pick the alcohol next time, though."

Hartley smiled and something loosened in his own chest. "Yeah. That's probably for the best."

* * *

They make it a year almost to the day of the final fight of the red skies crisis before a gang tries to burn their little out of the way house to the ground.

Cisco fights without his glasses or gauntlets – no time to fetch them – but his powers are steady nonetheless. Ralph and Hartley wind up making a good combo, as Hartley does have time to grab his gloves and join the fight just in time to blast a guy with a knife off Ralph's back. Frost ends the fight when she grabs the leader of their attackers by the throat and threatens to freeze his balls off.

Once they're satisfied the gang has moved on a decent distance, Cisco and Caitlin go check out the nearby farm they'd been trading with. The place is a wreck, but there are survivors – human and animal alike.

They end up bringing everyone back to the house for safety in numbers. The next day a few of them head back to test their amateur construction skills on rebuilding the barn for the animals, though most of the chickens wind up moved to the house's chicken coop.

"Maybe we should just permanently join forces," Cisco says, pulling Hartley, Caitlin, Jack (their plumber), and Maisie (who ran the farm). "Either rebuild the farm entirely plus extra housing and move us all there..."

"Or bring what's left of the farm here," Maisie finished for him. "This place is easier to defend, but not if we start expanding. The Cooper Farm is better for the animals space wise. And… well. That gang may have set the barn on fire, but Daisy's the one who accidentally broke the paddock. Turns out she's got meta powers, so I'd want you or your friends teaching her how to use that telekinesis of hers anyway. Pretty useful power, if she can get a handle on it."

Which is how they ended up rebuilding the farm and making new tiny homes on the property, slowly moving everyone and all their supplies down the road an hour.

Maisie's farmhouse was going to have the kitchen expanded so it could be a communal kitchen, though everyone would have the bare necessities for cooking in their new homes for rainy days and the like. They're still getting water piped in from nearby wells, though they've also rigged up a rain barrel system for every home they build to supplement that supply. And Jack checks all the plumbing and the sewage system the farm had set up. They end up nicking more abandoned supplies from Central City to update everything to keep working with the increased load. Learning how to build a proper fireplace was an interesting exercise, though they do manage to pull it off.

Caitlin and Frost take the first little one bedroom unit they build. Frost turns out to be a good teacher for Daisy, which also spurs them to be the first to move so that they can help Daisy deal with any power-related emergencies.

The first night Caitlin and Frost are in their new home is also the first night Cisco's slept alone in about a year. It's weird, not having Caitlin there to cling to in the middle of the night when nightmares wake him up and he winds up drinking hot tea in the kitchen of the house, which they're planning on gutting for the kitchen remodel over at the farm.

Hartley finds him and gets a cup of tea of his own. "You okay?" he asks.

"Yeah. Caitlin offered to let me live with her and Frost, but I… I don't know." Cisco sighed. "They're both really excited about having a space all to themselves. So it was sweet of them to ask, but..."

"I think Mary and Jack are going to share a house. They're trying to come up with plans for a two bedroom place on the sly." Hartley said, taking pity on Cisco by changing the subject.

"Oh, really? What does Ella think of this?" Cisco asked. Ella had taken to confiding in Hartley because he was the cool gay uncle and she thought she might be queer. It was endearing, really, and made Cisco's chest get all fluttery. Not that he was ready to deal with that last part yet.

"Kissing is gross and why do they have to keep doing it?" Hartley responded with a grin.

"If you think about the mechanics of it, she's not wrong. Kissing is gross," Cisco observed with a smile.

"True, but it always feels so good." Hartley sighed. "It's been way too long since I've kissed anyone."

Cisco thinks of Kamilla and its a dull ache. "Yeah… I know you mean."

"We need more cute queer guys to join our little community. Jeff and Khyber don't count, they're married and aren't polyamorous so I can't even flirt with them," Hartley pouted.

"Well, you could flirt with me," Cisco offers and they both freeze up a little. "I… I don't mind the flirting. Not really in a head space for anything else yet, but… flirting… is good."

Hartley chuckled softly. "Flirting is very nice," he agreed, eyes gentle as ran his fingers over the back of Cisco's hand.

Cisco hadn't dated a guy since college and he suddenly feels acutely aware of that lack of experience. And there's no internet to educate himself with now. But maybe he's reading too much into this…

The way Hartley's eyes have darkened, though, tell Cisco he's reading into this exactly what's there.

The conversation goes back to teasing from there, but Cisco's brain keeps looping back to the feeling of Hartley's fingers brushing against the back of his hand and the slightly husky sound of Hartley's voice as he agreed that flirting was nice.

* * *

Hartley and Cisco are the last to the leave the House behind. Somewhere along the way it had acquired an upper case first letter, to Hartley at least, and it was going to be weird living somewhere else.

The plan right now is for Hartley to move into one of the bedrooms in the Farmhouse while Cisco gets the most recent house to be built, a two room house that he'd gotten an awful lot of input from Hartley on. Hartley's trying not to assume anything, but he's hoping maybe its a sign that Cisco's about ready for something other than just flirting. Like maybe hand holding and kissing and dating. (Or moving in together and sex, but Hartley's trying to keep the wishful thinking to a minimum.)

Everything in the house has been cleared out, or nearly anyway. They're planning on keeping it maintained as a back up they can retreat to should they need to escape the farm for any reason. And Mary and Jack will probably use it as a honeymoon getaway at some point.

But it's nearly cleared out of most furniture and the kitchen is now bare bones. It's eerie and Hartley finds himself pulling out the pictures of the Rathaway family that had once lived here.

"So, what are you looking at?" Cisco asked, offering Hartley a glass of wine. Cisco's choice, of course.

"Family photos. Since most everyone who survived the apocalypse is from Earth-1, they're probably of the Hartley you used to know. It's weird seeing… seeing Jerrie as a kid and a teenager." Hartley handed over a photograph of a young blonde girl to Cisco to look at. "My mother got very sick when I was three or four. Cancer, I think. She survived it, but it had consequences that made having any more children very difficult. Supposedly impossible, but when I was twelve she got pregnant.

"I remember how excited she was. She was careful about everything, did all the right things, but something went wrong anyway and Jerrie was born too early. I never even got to see her. She died less than a day after being born and mother wasn't… wasn't the same afterwards. Neither was father. I let myself get caught making out with another boy because I was hoping that it'd wake them both back up. Even if they were angry and hated me, at least they wouldn't be so listless and lost anymore. It even worked, for a little while. I never got to reconcile with them, though. Not the way it looks like he did."

The wine is, this time, not so bad. "Good choice on the wine," Hartley complimented.

Cisco smiled. "Thanks. I'm sorry, about your parents. Their loss, for missing out on you."

"He used to say something similar," Hartley said quietly, and they both knew 'he' was the other Cisco.

Setting aside the photos and his wine glass, Cisco took Hartley's glass and set it aside too. "I would like very much to kiss you," he says, words bold even as nervousness makes his hands shake.

Hartley smiles and slides a hand through Cisco's hair and gently leans forward to kiss him. A chaste kiss at first, it slowly turns heated and needy until, panting into each other's mouths, Cisco invites Hartley back to his room.

In the end, Hartley doesn't move into the Farmhouse. He moves in with Cisco.

* * *

Kate Kane should have been dead, but she shows up with Lena Luther, one of the escape's from Supergirl's Earth, and Cisco is just dumbfounded.

"How are you even alive?" Cisco asks – demands. Kate was one of the Paragons and if she… if she was…

"Kara saved me. I was the only one, Cisco. I'm so sorry. Barry didn't… Barry didn't make it. We might've won, but..." Kate glanced over at Lena.

"My brother fucked things up," Lena said, bluntly. "I killed him for good reason and the Monitor brought him back, to weed through the different versions of Superman to find the one who was a Paragon. Should've thought that decision through better, because Lex over-wrote his name in the Book of Destiny atop that version of Kal-El and got Superman killed. But he wasn't a real Paragon, so Lex being there made the plan fail."

"I managed to rescue the Book," Kate told him, placing a very familiar source of trouble onto Cisco and Hartley's coffee table.

Hartley had made the table himself, as a gift before they'd decided to move in together. Cisco loves it. Loves the attention to detail and the little errors where Hartley was still learning to carve designs into the top and how the legs don't quite match because Hartley turned them himself. The first few failed legs are scattered around the room as candle holders.

Having that book on the table puts fear in Cisco's heart, though. Like maybe it's not over after all and he's going to lose this life he's trying to build for himself. He has to lean into Hartley's touch for strength.

Cisco notices the way Lena touches Kate's arm and wonders if, maybe, there's something between them too.

"The book's frozen," Kate tells them. "I tried to write in it, change the ending you know? And… nothing. Everything I tried to write just faded and the world was left unchanged."

"You two should stay here. There's room at the Farmhouse and we're pretty good at building homes now… You'd both be welcome here." Hartley smiled wanly.

"I'd like that," Kate said, exchanging a significant look with Lena.

"So would I," Lena agreed, blushing. "We'd only need one room until we get a home of our own built. I like the design of yours, mind if we copy the floor plan?"

* * *

The Book of Destiny goes up on a shelf in the house Kate Kane and Lana Luther build together. And, for a while, it gets forgotten.

Until Laurel Lance of Earth-2 shows up.

"The book is glowing," Kate said, pointing it out to Cisco and Hartley.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Lena muttered and retrieved it from the shelf. They laid it out on Lena and Kate's kitchen table.

There's a new entry in the back of the book. The new Paragons.

_Destiny: Dinah Lance_

_Courage: Kate Kane_

_Truth: Wally West_

_Honor: Ralph Dibny_

_Love: Lena Luthor_

_Humanity: Felicity Smoak_

_Hope: Hartley Rathaway_

"What does this even mean?" Laurel asked, touching the place on the page where her name was filled in, taking up the position once held by her alternate reality sister.

"I think it means we get a second chance," Kate said. "To save the multi-verse. To… undo what the Anti-Monitor destroyed. Or to get vengeance."

"I've done the whole vengeance thing," Hartley tells them. "I really can't do that again." He's staring at the book like it might bite him.

"Maybe if we can find Felicity Smoak and Wally West, we'll learn more," Lena offered carefully. She's giving the book a look like it's dangerous too. "Love," she mutters. Like it's a dirty word.

"Love," Kate echoes, kissing Lena's cheek. "After all that you've suffered, the betrayals you've lived through… that you let yourself love again is the greatest act of trust anyone has ever bestowed on me. So, yes, Lena. You certainly embody love to me."

"And on that note, we'll just let you two lovebirds have the room to yourselves," Laurel said. "We'll let ourselves out."

Outside the house, Laurel tells them, "I know where Felicity is. She's with toddler Mia and the Diggle kids, but I can bring them here inside of two months. Not sure about Wally West, though. And before you ask, yeah, Felicity and I have a sex-with-benefits thing going on, but we're definitely not going to want to share the same room so have at least two rooms waiting for us in the Farmhouse when I get back, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." They waved Laurel off and headed back to their own home.

"I don't want to go through this again," Cisco said, dropping immediately onto their couch.

"Neither do I. But… have you noticed the animals have been having fewer babies every year?" Hartley looked down pensively. "Crops are fine so far, but… I've suspected from the start that the Anti-Monitor wasn't actually done with us yet. Some paragon of hope I am, spouting doom and gloom, right?"

"Well… not to be outdone by Kate," Cisco joked, hoarsely because… he had noticed and it worried him too, "but you gave me hope when I had none. You mended my heart, piece by piece. And if I got my powers back for any reason, then maybe… maybe it was to protect you. Maybe you and the others, the new Paragons, were always meant to be the ones who stopped the Anti-Monitor. The Monitor was exactly the sort of bastard who'd play his cards so close to his chest that not even they knew who they were until they were on the table."

"We'll worry about that when the time comes," Hartley promises. "Right now, I just… I want you to take me to bed, okay?"

("If there was a Paragon of Loyalty," Hartley murmurs in Cisco's ear that night, "it'd be you.")


End file.
